Anti-stimulus candidate promoted stimulus grants

Republicans have been under fire for a week for welcoming funds from a stimulus they opposed, to which their defenders respond that if the money's been granted, they might as well get theirs.

A wealthy Tennessee Republican congressional challenger, George Flinn, doesn't have even that defense.

He attacks the Recovery Act on the Jobs section of his website, writing, "The so-called stimulus bill adopted by the Democrat Congress has done nothing to help the situation.”

But in addition to being a radiologist and radio magnate, Flinn has a sideline as a self-help guru for aspiring entrepreneurs, and a website, YourAmericanDreams.com.

And in one of the videos from the site, he teaches aspiring businessmen how to apply for government grants, including — explicitly — stimulus monies.

Beginning at about 6:50 of the video here, Flinn — after an extended riff on the "dignity" of eschewing government support, directs viewers to Grants.gov.

Flinn continues:

You go to that site, and you click on a bunch of things and you can fill out the application form right there on the site. And you can scroll down, or you can look through the site and see what kind of grants you could, you could qualify for. There are all kind of grants. There are grants for doing everything in the world you can think of. Maybe you can apply for one of these grants, maybe you can get some money that the government’s spending — they’re just not spending it on you right now. But they’re spending it. And some of it’s part of the stimulus package. So, we want to make sure that you — anything that’s available to you, that you deserve, you get. If you not — if it’s not available, or you don’t deserve it, you won’t get it. So let’s just make sure that you get your fair share of whatever’s available.

UPDATE: A reader dissents: "Suppose an accountant were running for Congress, and attacking Bush's tax cuts. Would it prove he was a hypocrite if he had advised his clients on how to take advantage of them?"